The Woodstock Township Board voted Monday to extend a moratorium on medical marijuana, but township attorney Fred Lucas said the township needs to hit the topic head-on soon with zoning and regulation ordinances.

For the past several years, the township has continued to pass six-month moratoriums, postponing the issue of allowing medical marijuana dispensaries within the township borders. Lucas said the township should make the moratorium resolution passed Monday its last, and start conferring with the planning commission and land use planners on where such medical marijuana caregiver places should be and how they should be regulated.

Lucas said the moratorium does not prohibit lawful use of medical marijuana.

The board also, by a 4-0 vote, passed the minutes from its December meeting. The routine passage was tabled last month after trustee Russ Elder said deputy supervisor Paul Delezenne could not have presided over the meeting in the absence of supervisor Lisa Delezenne. Elder cited a section of Michigan Township Association guidelines that said the clerk is to preside in the supervisor's absence, while board members referenced a Michigan Township Association paragraph that said a deputy supervisor can preside over a meeting but cannot vote. Lucas said he found language in the MTA guidelines that appear to give weight to each argument.

“I see two statutes that are at odds with each other,” Lucas said.

In the end, Lucas said, he said as a matter of procedure the deputy supervisor can preside over the meeting but cannot vote. Paul Delezenne did not vote during the meeting over which he presided.